17-yr-old Tupac navigates school, poverty, and family, dreaming of using poetry and music to spread the message of his mother, Black Panther activist Afeni Shakur. Haunted by her past, Afeni fears it will affect Tupac's promising future.

Tupac bursts on the scene in music and movies, but being a mainstream star and a militant activist comes at a cost. Afeni's activism lands her and her Panther comrades in a political show trial that could end with all of them in prison.

Tupac spends nearly a year at the Clinton Correctional Facility at Dannemora; he leaves hardened by the experience and immediately joins Death Row Records.